RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Commentary: Toward a Psychodynamic Understanding of Filicide—Beyond Psychosis and Into the Heart of Darkness JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law SP 505 OP 508 VO 33 IS 4 A1 Daniel J. Papapietro A1 Elizabeth Barbo YR 2005 UL http://jaapl.org/content/33/4/505.abstract AB Much of the literature on filicide explores acute psychosis, sociopathy, or malignant narcissism (psychiatrically ill versus not psychiatrically ill) as primary explanations of why parents kill children. In this issue, Hatters Friedman et al. review the literature on acute psychiatric symptoms in an effort to identify key risk factors for filicide that might have predictive value. In this commentary, we assert the argument that filicide is a complex phenomenon that is the result of more than just psychosis or environmental stressors and that, because not all parents who become psychiatrically ill kill, there may be specific risk factors related to individual underlying psychodynamic conflicts.